>> p ht, maybe it's a good thing it's broken now it's evidence, the federal health care website has security flaws. today the president took ownership -- >> i take full responsibility for making sure it gets fixed asap. >> pelley: while a top official adopted a new description. >> accountable for the debacle. >> pelley: nancy cordes is on capitol hill. sharyl attkisson learned details of the prelaunch test that failed. does headgear in youth football and soccer prevent concussions? dr. john lapook has major new study. christians are persecuted in egypt. their churches torched. clarissa ward investigates. and in this town the sun doesn't rise above the ridge. now mark phillips reports thanks

to a clever trick winter is so bright they have to wear shades. ♪ let the sun shine in captioning sponsored by cbs s this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening this was the day that republicans were waiting for. the day they could grill the secretary of health and human services about the disastrous roll out of the health insurance website. kathleen sebelius was surrounded by photographers as she appeared before the house energy and commerce committee. she acknowledged that the website has been, quote, a debacle that two weeks of prelaunch testing was not enough and that she is responsible. but she said the problems will be fixed by the end of next month. nancy cordes is on capitol hill. >> reporter: under oath secretary sebelius said the buck stops with her. >> let me say directly to these americans, you deserve better. i apologize. i am accountable to you for fixing these problems.

>> reporter: that mea culpa didn't satisfy republicans who questioned why to be at h.h.s. or centers for medicare and head medicare have been fired. tennessee's marsha blackburn. >> who was in charge as it was being built. >> was in charge. >> at that time who is the individual -- >> snyder is -- michelle schneider is the one responsible for this debacle? >> well, excuse me, congresswoman. michelle schneider is not responsible for the debacle. hold me accountable for the debacle. >> reporter: sebelius did point the finger outside government blaming a contract or, c.g.i. for the site's flaws and rise in subsidiary for recent outages including today's. >> it's been down the whole time we've been testifying. >> reporter: newly released internal memo shows that just days before the website's october 1 launch, administration officials knew it might lack adequate safeguards for personal information. from a security perspective a

medicare official wrote, the aspects of the system that were not tested due to the ongoing development exposed a level of uncertainty that can be deemed as a high risk. michigan's mike rogers. >> because you did not even have the most basic end to end test on security of this system. amazon would never do this. proflowers would never do this. kayak would never do this. this is completely and unacceptable level of security. >> reporter: sebelius faced bruising questions about americans losing insurance plans that don't comply with the new obamacare standards. colorado's cory gardener. >> the white house website says, if you like your health plan you have, you can keep it. did i hear it wrong? >> she argued the 5% of americans whose individual plans could get canceled will have the chance to buy better coverage. >> insurance companies cancel individual policies year in and year out. they are one year contracts with individuals. they are not lifetime plans --

>> let me -- or employer plan. >> let me move on. >> i will remind you some people like to drive a ford not a ferrari and some people like to drink out of a red solo cup or a crystal stem. you're taking away their choice. >> reporter: democrats accuse their g.o.p. colleagues of, quote, hyperventilating arguing that the problems at the website are unfortunate but fixable and secretary sebelius said the fixes are being made on a daily basis including security fixes and she said she knows of no security breaches that have happened at the site. >> pelley: nancy cordes. thank you. as nancy's story mentioned the president has said often that people that like their insurance would be able to keep it. but now that millions are seeing their plans canceled because those plans don't meet the standards of obamacare the president said this today by way of explanation. >> if you had one of these substandard plans before the affordable care act became law

and you really like that plan, you are able to keep it. but ever since the law was passed if insurers decided to downgrade or cancel the substandard plans what we said under the law is, you got to replace them with quality comprehensive coverage. >> pelley: in her testimony, secretary sebelius said, i told the president that we were ready to go. clearly i was wrong. one of the mysteries is why the secretary would give the all clear after the system failed repeatedly during those tests before its debut. sharyl attkisson has dug up new information on this. >> reporter: we've learned the website failed with a small test pool of two to three hundred people in that included employees from the government and insurance companies the government employees work the at their own computers and desks within centers formed kate and medicare services which over saw the implementation.

according to the sources familiar with the process, the employees were employed fake personal information to enter in to healthcare.gov rather than their own and given date that testing would begin. however, on that date the employees were told it was being postponed. when the testing finally took place in late september the testers started trying to create an application, just a couple of pages into the process everything ground to a stop, says one source. it froze, it couldn't go forward. it crashed. a couple of days later testers tried again and had a similar outcome, they were never able to successfully browse plans for cost estimates. it was unequivocally clear from testing this wasn't ready says a source close to the testing. the account is in stark contrast to the testimony yesterday from marilyn tavernner, the head of c.m.s. she testified under oath she had no idea prior to october 1 that the problems were so bad. >> we had tested the website and

we were comfortable with its performance. the volume issue and creation of account issues was not anticipated and obviously took us by surprise and did not show up in testing. >> reporter: one question this raises, scott, was the head of c.m.s. unaware of results of testing that took place inside her own agency just days before the launch. >> pelley: sharyl attkisson tonight. thank you very much. the "washington post" this evening is publishing more information from edward snowden the national security agency computer technician who is spilling the secrets of u.s. surveillance. bob orr is our homeland security correspondent. today's story say they may be stealing the communications of the networks of google and yahoo!, what did you find out about that today? >> reporter: scott, it seems n.s.a. is getting far more aggressive than it's been in pushing back of these stories based on the leaks, specifically

n.s.a. chief keith alexander denied the "washington post" report which claimed that the u.s. government is using some kind of secret back door or back doors to routinely scoop up millions of communication records from users of yahoo! and google. alexander made point of saying that n.s.a. does get information from those internet search companies but only through court orders. >> pelley: bob orr in our washington newsroom. thank you, bob. in egypt, a top leader of the muslim brotherhood was arrested today by the military government, it's part of the crackdown on brotherhood which advocates a strict islamic government. he went in to hiding when the military ousted president muhammad morsi. since then islamic militants have stepped up attacks on christians and clarissa ward is in cairo with that. >> reporter: in a packed church in a poor cairo neighborhood, the mourners grieve for their dead. five christians mowed down by mass gunmen has they arrived for a wedding.

he lost two of his grand daughters in the attack. maryam was just eight years old. i found little maryam she was hit by 14 bullets, he said. a little girl hit by 14 bullets. the shooting was the latest in a wave of attacks against egypt's christian minority which makes up about 10% of the country's population. christians say they are being targeted by hard liners in the muslim brotherhood after they backed the military crackdown on the islamic group. a charge the muslim brotherhood denies but since the crackdown more than 50 churches have been burned or looted. the church of the virgin mary in al musla a small village outside of cairo was attacked last august when large crowd burst through the gate and ransacked the compound. according to guards who were here that night, once the church had been completely looted, the

mob then began pelting it with molotov cocktails until the entire structure was consumed by the flames. by the time it was safe for caretaker to return there was almost nothing left of the 400- year-old church. it was very painful because this is a heritage site, he said. and it's very precious to us. no one claims responsibility for the attack but he told us he blames the muslim brotherhood. he says the church received threats from them before. when the children ask who did this, we can't tell them the truth, he told us. because they will think that all muslims are capable of this. but in fact very few muslims could do something like this. >> pelley: clarissa ward is joining us from cairo. clarissa, what is the military government doing about this? >> reporter: well, scott, the military has promised that it will rebuild all of those damaged churches, but so far

that hasn't happened. in the meantime the security situation here continues to deteriorate rapidly. the muslim brotherhood has come out and condemned the attacks but what they haven't done yet to really crackdown on the sort of anti-christian rhetoric that fuels this type of violence. >> pelley: we'll keep following up. thanks very much. now couple of notes on the economy. the government announced today that americans on social security will be getting a cost of living adjustment in january of 1.5%. the average recipient that amounts to extra $19 a month. on wall street, stock prices fell back from the record highs they reached yesterday, dow gave up 61 points today to close at 15,618. do football helmets prevent concussions? we'll look at a new study. and watch a bus driver become a hero when the cbs evening news continues. digestive balance in sync? try align.

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she's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with her all day to see how it goes. [ claira ] after the deliveries, i was okay. now the ciabatta is done and the pain is starting again. more pills? seriously? seriously. [ groans ] all these stops to take more pills can be a pain. can i get my aleve back? ♪ for my pain, i want my aleve. [ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap. >> pelley: parents and doctors now know that young athletes should not try to just shake off a head injury. a report out today says that in 2009, 250,000 athletes aged 19 and younger were treated for concussions that's up from 150,000 in 2001. visits to the e.r. for concussions were up 57%. dr. john lapook has more. >> reporter: brown university junior, dillion o'carroll was

recruited to play football. in august 2012 he decided to stop after his third concussion. >> the reason i knew something was wrong when i walked off the field and i had this light blindness, i said, whoa, that wasn't good. again, i start to feel like i wasn't myself. >> reporter: today's report describes a culture of resistance where they feel pressure not to discuss concussions. >> it's a difficult designs. you've been playing football all i don't have life, you love everything that goes along with football. to have it kind of taken away from you you kind of have to understand that there is more to life than football. >> reporter: according to the report, the highest rate of injury for men is in football followed by ice hockey, lacrosse, wrestling and soccer. among the highest for women are soccer and college ice hockey and there's no evidence soccer headgear reduces the risk of concussion. the same is true in football. helmet manufacturers already post warnings like this. contact in football may result

in concussion or brain injury which no helmet can prevent. dr. neha raukar was one of the authors of the report. >> helmets were originally created to reduce the number of skull fractures and intercranial bleeding and oral and eye injuries. however, they don't necessarily reduce the forces that lead to concussive injuries. >> reporter: athletes with a concussion are risk for more severe one the next time around. ten to 20% of patients have symptoms lasting more than two weeks. returning to play before full recovery increases the risk of more severe brain injury. >> has to be individualized. every person recovers at a different rate. >> reporter: despite all the attention to the subject, the committee found significant lack of knowledge about how often concussions happen and what the affects are. they recommend the government set up a national reporting database. >> pelley: big concern for so many parents, john. a bus driver in buffalo made an unscheduled stop that saved a

life. a surveillance camera recorded darnell barton as he pulled his bus over on a highway overpass he spotted the woman outside the railing who appeared ready to jump. >> ma'am! are you okay? >> pelley: barton put his arm around the woman and brought her to the safe side then waited with her for the police. later got a big hand from passengers on the bus. coming up, a light bulb went off in someone's head now there's sunlight in one of the gloomiest places on earth. that's just ahead. before copd...

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>> pelley: severe weather may force trick-or-treaters to change their plans. torrential rain and thunderstorms forecast in houston, memphis, up to cincinnati. flooding is possible and there could be wind damage. in a little town in norway, there used to be a sense of dread every autumn when the sun nearly disappeared. but after generations of cursing the darkness, today the people there finally saw the light. mark phillips shows us how. >> reporter: when the "let there be light" command rang down it missed this place or at least for half of the year. from october to march the sun never rises above the hills around the valley town of ruka.

that is a problem for karen row who runs the tourism agency. >> people need sun. if people get sun they will be more healthy and will work better. >> reporter: if they get shade and shadow and darkness not so much. >> yeah, that's true. >> reporter: now what nature hasn't provided modern engineering has. they have built a huge array of mirrors on the hillside above the town where the sun does hit. and they move and track the sun reflecting the light right down in to the main square. it was the idea of martin anderson who moved here 12 years ago. >> when you came here what did you think? how can you live like this? >> i had to look for the sun. >> reporter: when the sun did shine, the people of ruka lit up, too. it's not like lighting up the whole place just one spot in the center of town. but it's now one bright spot in

an otherwise dark world and that counts. what a change from what had been. >> i thought it was horrible. >> reporter: angela moved here from new jersey five years ago. but she still hasn't gotten over the shock of going from darkness to finally seeing the light. >> you know what it is to not have the sun to suddenly come upon the town square and there's a little bit of sunshine, smiles on everyone's face. >> reporter: they may be smiling all winter. mark phillips, cbs news, ruka, norway. >> pelley: invaders from mars, panic on earth and man from mercury was right in the middle of it. the dramatic conclusion of the cbs evening news. she loves a lot of the same things you do.

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ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a 30-tablet free trial. ask is guard finally breaks its silence. next weather talent appears at wx center with generic pinpoint filling monitor then we take special >> the columbia broadcasting station presents orson welles and mercury theater on the air in the "war of the worlds." by h.g. wells. >> pelley: a lot of folks missed that announcement that the program they were about to hear on cbs radio 75 years ago tonight was a drama. what they did hear touched off halloween eve panic and made a star of the 23-year-old director. jim axelrod talked to the last

surviving member of the cast of "the "war of the worlds". >> there is other son and his wife. >> reporter: at the age of 97 william herz has a lifetime of memories to look back upon. but there's one dating back 75 years that stands out. in 1938, herz was a member of the mercury theater on the air. a drama company founded by a little known director named orson welles. >> we know now in the twentieth century this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man. >> he was a brilliant, wonderful, impossible human being. >> the mercury players broadcast on cbs radio. >> on this particular evening, october 30th. >> on halloween eve they did adaptation of h.g. wells' "war of the worlds," herz the only surviving member read welles' part.

>> i thought it was pretty far out and that people would not respond to it. >> ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program -- >> reporter: herz couldn't have been more wrong. >> in virginia, three monster machines visible moving north. >> during the broadcast outside policeman were coming. they were told on radio that the martians were coming, the martians were coming. but they didn't come. >> reporter: the next day newspapers were filled with stories of the chaos and a stunned welles was forced to address the critics. >> we are deeply sorry and deeply regretful about the results of that night's broadcast. >> just the biggest publicity stunt that had ever been done.

this was the event that really cat fund orson welles in to sort of the national consciousness. >> absolutely. absolutely. >> maybe the destruction of the martians is only a reprieve. to them and not to us. ♪ >> reporter: it may be hard to believe in our image soaked modern world of twitter and instagram there was time not too long ago when people could imagine horror for themselves. and proving that the good old days were not always better. jim axelrod, cbs news, new york. >> pelley: and that's the cbs evening news for tonight. for all of us at cbs news, all around the world, good night. captioning sponsored by cbs captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org on the bay.

good evening, i'm ken bastida. on the bay. good evening, i'm ken your realtime captioner is mrs. linda m. macdonald. the coast guard finally breaks its silence on that mysterious barge in the bay. >> good evening, i'm ken bastida. >> i'm elizabeth cook. google still won't sigh say a word about a secret project on the bay but allen martin found out more about the barges themselves, who owns them and their ties to a mysterious tenant on treasure island. >> government officials, federal agencies, everyone wondering what's going on with google in san francisco and maine. we finally received a comment from the u.s. coast guard, sort of today. we found at least three barges two with container structures on them all marked with the letters bal followed by four numbers. the two barges at treasure island are numbered 0010 and

0001. the barge in portland, maine is marked bal0011. a document provided to kpix 5 by the treasure island development authority confirms one of the four tenants currently leasing space in hangar 3 which sits across from the barges is called by and large or bal. it moved in august 1 this year but so far the authority hasn't provided kpix 5 with a copy of the lease to show how much by and large pays and how long it plans to stay. adding to the intrigue, look at this sign inside hangar 3 telling anyone who goes in to turn over all recording devices. well placed sources tell kpix 5 the barges are being built and outfitted as retail sales and marketing centers for google glass, the company's wearable computer. google is so far not responding at all to numerous requests for comment on the project. other than the list of lessees,